But while the comment boards rail Sternberg for adding more fuel to the fire in the stadium saga, Times columnist John Romano writes that Sternberg showed a bit of humility when asked about his decision to cut payroll next year:

"(Being less competitive and impressive hurts me) worse than it hurts anybody else," he said. "It's who we are; it's who we have to be. We took every shot we could at not having to have this happen. Along with the great fortune in 2008, along with what looks to be great fortune this year, we put everything in place to have it happen, to put us in a position so we'd be able to keep adding, keep signing, (doing) more long-term deals, stuff like that. It wasn't meant to be."